The Mud Times

It's been raining here in our corner of the Iraq. It does happen, for a few months of the year. And real long rains, too, not just the 10-minute mudstorms we'd get down in the southern desert last deployment. There's something that just feels a bit more momentous about rain in the desert. It feels like an event. All the plants are greener, and everything looks a bit more vibrant, now that the summer's worth of dust has been rinsed off. But there's a downside, because all the dirt that blows around as dust all summer has now turned into mud. Slippery, sticky mud that'll be with us until April or so. There's really only two seasons in the Iraq: the Hot Times and the Mud Times. Happy Mud Times, everyone.

photo by Flickr user KristenKing